


open your eyes (and take a breath)

by essily



Category: The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon, because they're both assholes, but they're each other's assholes, future fic with angsty sex and all that jazz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-11
Updated: 2015-04-11
Packaged: 2018-03-22 07:36:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3720493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/essily/pseuds/essily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So it’s “nothing”. That’s what Aris calls it, because that’s what Minho treats it as. It’s nothing because it doesn’t matter, not one bit. It’s nothing because it should be nothing.</p><p>                  Until it isn’t.</p><p> </p><p>angsty minaris paradise fic, already on tumblr. sorry for the tears and thank u punkassaris for giving me these horrible ideas in the first place :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	open your eyes (and take a breath)

**Author's Note:**

> ok so this is already on tumblr but i kind of wanted to put it up here so people won't be so disappointed when they see that there's basically no minaris up sooo  
> i'm not sure how i feel about it since it's a bit old but give it a try!!!

Minho never kisses him.

It’s not that the sex isn’t good- it’s great, Aris couldn’t ask for a better… whatever Minho is to him. And it’s not that he doesn’t want it. But it always boils down to that one inescapable fact about their non-relationship: Minho never kisses him, not the way that matters.

It’s all teeth and tongue and bites down his neck that stay for days to come. All charged with want and need and electric in the most human way, it’s intoxicating; it’s the best kind of pain. It’s all marks on his shoulders and the heat of Minho’s mouth against his skin and it’s so good, but it’s not right.

Because when the sun rises he’s gone again. And when Aris tries to catch Minho’s eye all he gets is the same cold, disinterested look he’s seen ever since the scorch. Because any attempt at conversation is brushed off without so much as a proper hello. Because when the sun rises Minho lets the cold in through the door and never says goodbye. Never kisses him the way it matters.

(He doesn’t see the way Minho looks at him when he isn’t paying attention. He never sees Minho and Thomas up late shouting at each other over it, or the way he goes down to the water, tears running down his face, before he finds Aris. He never sees.)

So it’s “nothing”. That’s what Aris calls it, because that’s what Minho treats it as. It’s nothing because it doesn’t matter, not one bit. It’s nothing because it should be nothing.

Until it isn’t.

Until one night, Minho doesn’t leave.

He sits on the edge of the bed and sighs, making no move to stand. It must be nearly dawn, and the black of the sky has faded to a reddish gray, the stars beginning to twinkle in and out of sight. This is the part when Minho goes home and pretends nothing ever happened. But tonight, for whatever reason, he stays.

Something is wrong.

“I can’t go back,” says Minho, so quiet that he almost doesn’t hear.

“Why?” Aris asks, before he can stop himself.

“Thomas. He- We- He won’t be happy.”

“You could- you could stay here. If you wanted, I mean.”

“It’s fine,” Minho replies. “I’ll find-“

“Please. Just stay.” Just one night, he wants to say, stay with me.

Minho shakes his head. “How do you even put up with me?”

“What do you mean?”

When Minho turns to look at him, it’s with red-rimmed eyes and a look of exhaustion that sends tiny little daggers into Aris’s heart.

“I’ve been so… I never wanted to hurt you, Aris. I tried so hard to hate you, because I should have, I did, but I also- What it comes down to is that I don’t want you to keep doing this if you don’t want to.”

Aris wants to scream. He wants to grab Minho by the shoulders and knock some sense into him, preferably with his mouth. How can he have gotten it so wrong? It’s hard to fathom from where he’s standing, the notion that it was him who didn’t understand- and how could Minho, beautiful, gorgeous, amazing Minho think that anyone wouldn’t want to have a “regular thing” with him?

“You think I’m just doing this out of pity? Even if I didn’t-“ he stops himself. “You’re not the kind of guy who needs pity to get laid.”

Minho shakes his head. “You know that’s not what I mean.”

They’re closer than he remembered. Drawing back, he takes a deep breath. He wants- what does he want? He wants Minho to love him. That much is obvious, but he doesn’t- and likely won’t for a very long time. But he doesn’t want this anymore, this non-relationship, the cold glares, all the little things they don’t do.

And if Minho doesn’t want more, then so be it. But Aris won’t settle for this anymore. He’s sick of being ignored and used and only tolerated, just barely, because he’s- what? Pretty? He’s sick of holding on to the one distant glimmer of hope that Minho can come to feel the same. He’s sick of wanting him- all of him- in spite of it.

He needs an ultimatum.

“Stay,” he says. “If you want to fix this, instead of just running away all over again, stay.”

And if he doesn’t, well, at least he’ll have the comforting feeling of having nothing, instead of this half-a-relationship they’ve been pretending not to have for months. If he doesn’t stay, at least Aris will know, once and for all, that Minho doesn’t feel the same.

But Minho doesn’t leave.

“Why?” Minho whispers. There’s an innocence in his words, as if he’s never considered the way Aris feels for him. “All I’ve ever done is hurt you.”

The words cut through Aris like a knife. He’s got it backwards- has to have. Does he really believe, after all that's happened, Aris will just push him away the second he gets the chance? What does he do? What does he say? He breathes in-

“Because it hurts even worse when you’re gone.”

It happens too quickly for him to notice. One moment, he’s looking at Minho, taking in the shock, the realization dawning on his face- then, before he can blink, Minho’s hands are pulling him in and they’re kissing like they’ve never kissed before. And it’s slow and it’s sweet and it’s gentle, and Minho’s fingers tracing his jaw and sending shivers down his spine so unlike all the times before. When he pulls away, it’s with a hesitant look, his eyes searching Aris’s face for some sort of sign.

“Do you want me?” Aris whispers into the air between them.

“Yes,” comes the reply, steady and determined. Aris catches his wrist, looking straight into his eyes.

“All of me?” he asks slowly, deliberately.

“Yes,” Minho says again, just as readily. And maybe he doesn’t feel as strongly as Aris does, and maybe he never will. But for now, it’s good enough.

It’s like rediscovering him, when they kiss again. He knows full well how Minho tastes (like salt and apples and burning), but he’s never tasted it this way. He swears he could spend forever like this, the taste of Minho’s lips on his, the feeling of his arms wrapping around his waist. And then again, he thinks, he could. This is his now. Minho is his. He smiles into it.

“What?”

“Just thinking.”

“Stop that,” he manages between kisses "kiss me."

So it’s nothing- until one night, it isn’t.


End file.
